Date of Award
2002
Degree Name
M.A. in Psychology
Department
Department of Psychology
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between self-forgiveness, forgiveness of others, and mental health. It also explored how self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others differ. Participants (N = 108) were recruited from a medium-sized Midwestern Catholic university. Participants answered self-report questionnaires concerning forgiveness of self and others, dispositional predictor variables (guilt, shame, religiousness, self-consciousness), and mental health (anger, depression, self-esteem). As hypothesized, self-forgiveness was negatively related to depression and self-consciousness and positively related to self-esteem. Forgiveness of others was negatively related to state anger, trait anger, and depression. Both self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others contributed uniquely to the prediction of depression. Furthermore, guilt and shame were negatively correlated with both self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others. However, guilt contributed uniquely to the prediction of both self forgiveness and forgiveness of others, whereas shame uniquely predicted only dispositional self-forgiveness. Contrary to hypotheses, religious orientation was not related to any of the forgiveness measures. Study limitations are discussed.
Keywords
Forgiveness Case studies
Rights Statement
Copyright © 2002, author
Recommended Citation
Glasener, Dawn E., "Differentiating between forgiveness of self and others" (2002). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 2919.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/graduate_theses/2919
